The seven books in the series are The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950),Prince Caspian (1951),The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952), The Silver Chair (1953), the Horse and His Boy (1954) , The Magician's Nephew (1955) , and finally The Last Battle (1956).
JRR Tolkien apparently expressed his dislike of the Narnia books, as they depended on "merely a difference in taste". George Sayer (Lewis' biographer) remarked that Tolkien considered that the books "were carelessly and superficially written.". Roald Dahl seems to have been kinder, in fact he seemed to have liked them, simply noting that they lacked 'humour'. I can't say that these criticisms are without merit, but when I first read these books as a child, they opened up a wonderful new world. And, especially in the case of The Magicians Nephew, I found both the characters and story line to be quite enthralling. Of course, just to be difficult, The Magicians Nephew was Lewis' least favourite, and took him the longest to write, but then maybe that is it's strength.
Anyway, these books are from my own personal collection, and I am currently on the lookout for an original early Puffin of Tolkiens' 'the Hobbit', with Pauline Baynes art work...so if anyone out there has a copy spare keep me in mind!.
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| Cover by Quentin Blake "Doing Art". |
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| John Updike |
While not as amusing as his work
'The Encyclopedia of Sexual Knowledge', written under the pseudonyms of "Drs. A. Costler, A. Willy, and Others", Darkness at Noon is one of Koestlers masterpieces and an important anti-totalitarian work (in this case Communism) . When I include this in our "Covers We Like' section it is because the cover depresses me...as it should. But then, as with anything to do with Koester you have to take the good with the bad, the noble with the ignoble, and on occasion, the downright loopy.
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| Koestler picking cotton with Langston Hughes |
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I possibly should not have included this cover, as Penguins heavy handed cropping does no favours to Ben Shahns poster for the Resettlement Administration.
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| Ben Shahn. Years of Dust. |
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| Scott's Run, West Virginia (1939) by Ben Shahn |
Lord knows...but we sell an awful lot of Bertrand Russell.
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| Scratches, stains and all, it's still cool. |
Terrible book, I just like the cover!. As Orwell said, the book is "Bollocks".. "it was written simply as an exercise and I oughtn't to have published it, but I was desperate for money". I suspect the designers at Fletcher / Forbes / Gill threw the design together one rainy afternoon, without a second thought, but hey, it works, and given the experimental nature of the book it is as suitable as can be expected.
Another book by a disillusioned Communist! Oh well.
The artwork is by Ben Shahn, commissioned for the film 'Ambassador Satchmo' a 1956 profile of the life and music of Louis Armstrong.
Definitely the best cover for this book.
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